The Boston Red Sox revamped their starting rotation this offseason, adding the likes of 2024 AL All-Star Garrett Crochet and two-time NL All-Star Walker Buehler.
Now, the Red Sox are being connected to 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner and two-time All-Star Sandy Alcantara.
In a piece posted on Thursday, Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller attempted “Predicting Where Top Players Involved in MLB Trade Rumors Will Finish ’25 Season.” Among the top players likely to be moved, according to Miller, is the Miami Marlins‘ top starter.
After making 14 appearances (six starts) during the 2017 and 2018 seasons combined with the St. Louis Cardinals and then Marlins, the Dominican broke out in 2019.
Despite going 6-14 that year, Alcantara finished with a strong 3.88 ERA and made his first Midsummer Classic. Alcantara then was solid for the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign and was even better in 2021.
Due in large part to playing for a brutal team, he finished just 9-15, but also recorded a 3.19 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 201 strikeouts. Alcantara’s solid peripheral numbers finally resulted in more wins in his Cy Young season, as he went 14-9 with a 2.28 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 207 strikeouts (all career bests), plus a league-leading six complete games (one shutout) and 228 2/3 innings pitched.
He made his second All-Star team in 2022 and led the senior circuit in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for a pitcher as well (8.0).
Alcantara regressed in 2023, going 7-12 with a 4.14 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and was shut down that September with a forearm injury. He underwent Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2024 season but is looking to bounce back in 2025.
“The Miami Marlins were adamant from the outset that they had no intentions of trading away Sandy Alcántara this offseason, and they have thus far stuck by that. However, we’re all kind of expecting it to happen before this summer’s trade deadline,” Miller wrote. “They probably just outright told people they wouldn’t be trading him now because they didn’t feel like dealing with lowball offers for a recent Cy Young winner who is coming off an even more recent Tommy John surgery, instead hoping he can reassert his dominance over the first few months of the 2025 campaign and be worth more in July than he would’ve been in January.”
There’s a ‘Good Chance (Alcantara’s) on The Move This Summer’
Alcantara is under team control in Miami through 2027, after inking a five-year, $56 million extension in 2021.
Most of that money is set to come off the books in these last three seasons of the contract, however, with the 29-year-old set to earn $17.3 million in 2025 and 2026, before a $21 million club option comes into play in 2027.
“And if he does perform in the first half of 2025 like he did for most of 2022, hoo boy, the bidding war will be fierce for what would at that point be 2.33 seasons of his services at an overall dollar cost of $44 (million)” Miller wrote. “At the rate that starting pitchers are going for in free agency these days, 2.33 years of Alcántara would cost nearly double that. For that percentage of the Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell contracts signed this winter, you’re talking ($81.5 million-$84.8 million.) For that type of discount, you can bet teams would be willing to part with some serious prospect capital.”
With a “Big Three” including Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony, Boston has one of the deepest and most talented pools of prospects in baseball. If the Red Sox are willing to part with any of the trio, they could be a frontrunner for Alcantara, if he hits the trade market this season.
“Now, if (Alcantara) struggles or if the Marlins are a contender — one of those scenarios is substantially likelier than the other — that changes things,” the Bleacher Report scribe said. “But there’s a good chance he’s on the move this summer to a team with A) multiple top-100 prospects, B) reasonable hope for a World Series within the next three years and C) at least some degree of disposable income.”
Other Teams Have Been Linked to Alcantara
Even if the ace in South Beach does end up in trade rumors over the summer and the Red Sox remain a contender, they may have competition for his services.
Among the other teams that have been connected to Alcantara this winter include the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.
Los Angeles’ starting rotation (and its entire roster) is an embarrassment of riches, featuring two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, Japanese superstar Roki Sasaki, 2024 All-Star Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani (once he returns to the mound). Who’s to say the “Evil Empire” is done in its quest to become the first back-to-back World Series champion in more than two decades, however?
During December’s Winter Meetings, MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger predicted that Alcantara would get dealt to Los Angeles, and while that didn’t happen, don’t count the Dodgers out.
In Queens, the Mets have one of the most loaded lineups with a core of Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso, but their starting rotation lacks a clear ace. Having spent nearly his entire career in the NL East, Alcantara has plenty of experience pitching at Citi Field and solid numbers as well.
In eight games at the Mets’ home ballpark, the righty has limited batters to a .219/.271/.357 slash line across 211 plate appearances.
However things play out in 2025, Alcantara’s name will likely be one of the top pitchers involved in trade rumors yet again.
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